Friday Bake-Off: Soccer Cakes

These black-and-white Twinkie-style cakes, adapted from Gale Gand's Chocolate and Vanilla, would be just right for whatever you have planned this Memorial Day weekend. They're perfectly portable and the cake recipe is the easiest I've ever seen. The cakes without the frosting have the added benefit of being dairy-free if that's an issue for anyone you're catering to; it's an innocuous little cake all on its own, not too sweet or rich.

Stir, then pour into a 9 x 13-inch baking pan that you've lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350-degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with no uncooked batter attached. Let it cool in the pan for 20 to 30 minutes, then remove from pan to baking rack to cool completely.

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Refrigerate 1 hour to make it easier to cut, then remove parchment and cut into 16 equally-sized bars. At this point I made the frosting, and I only made a half-batch because I only made 8 cakes (I froze the other half of the cake). I cut up 7 tablespoons butter and let sit at room temperature to soften. Then I beat it with 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tablespoon milk and a drip of vanilla extract.

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I spooned the frosting into a ziptop bag and cut off the tip (start small; you can always cut off a bit more if you need to). Then I used a straw to make a hole down the center of the cake. I found I needed to make it a bit bigger than the straw.

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I piped the frosting into the cakes. I found that the frosting only went about halfway through; maybe a pastry bag and tip would work better? I think next time I might just make squares, which would be easier to fill all the way. My solution this time was to frost a squiggle on top.

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You can see I'm not a pastry chef; the tops of my cakes are marked with the lines on the cooling rack, and the edges are ragged because I didn't chill the cakes like the recipe suggested. They were still easy to eat out-of-hand and the kids loved them (my husband did, too). So easy and lots of fun!